Review by William Keech

The basics

A game on par with chess, completely strategic, zero luck factor (unless your opponents screw up) with a very high angst level, that's just plain fun to play. We nicknamed it the game of "Wait your turn!" As this was the phrase most often spoken during gameplay.

Goal

Take out all of the other players Alpha pieces.

Gameboard

A seven by seven grid printed on a rubber mat, simple but highly functional.

Game components

The pieces are simple wooden dowels cut to various lengths and painted to denote ownership. I would have preferred more variation in the shapes. The Beta and Gamma pieces look too much alike and were regularly mistaken for one another. The die is simply a square piece of wood with the same type of markings as the playing pieces.

How to play

Each players starts off with four pieces, which are placed in their starting positions (as shown in the above picture) The die is rolled to determine the starting player, the play order moves to the left from that point.
Each piece has a specific number of spaces and a direction that it can move (laterally, diagonally or both). Capturing a piece is done if your piece lands on or if its path will take it through the space an opponent occupies. In other words, pieces may not move through or jump over other pieces, if this is done, the piece stops at the square and takes the piece. That players turn is completed.
If an opponents Alpha piece has been taken, that player removes his remaining pieces and is removed from the game.

My opinion

This is one of the best "all strategy" games that I have ever played and will give chess lovers a run for there money. It is so simple in concept that you wonder why it hasn't come out sooner. I can't help but compare this to my all time favorite strategy game, chess. Both share a couple of highly valued game characteristics. The first is its high replay value and the other is its deceptively easy game mechanics. I use the word "deceptive" because, like chess, your strategy will formulate the more you play.

 

Number of players: 2-4	Complexity:	Strategy:	Luck:
Playing time: 30 minutes	Manufacturer: Kaos Toys